From their comments: These are not my words, from someone else on a different site but I thought they were so nice that I'd share them.

This is really sad. I took a class in college about perceived monsters, social deviants and subcultures, and the people who identify themselves as such. We were lucky enough to have a live, hour-long Skype interview with Dennis and he was incredibly intelligent, patient and friendly. He only pursued what made him happy and came by it honestly. He told the class his earliest memory was wondering where his tail went. The world lost a really kind, gentle guy and the body mod world lost a pioneer who did a lot for people seeking to identify themselves as more than their physical bodies allowed. Rest in peace, Cat.

This is twice I've read about someone that knew the other that died more closely before it came to suicide. I've known personally people that don't go to extremes for so many years, simplistic....and they made THAT choice. I hope that we can remove any booze and drugs that provided him the space in his mind to make that fatal leap.

I don't know. Not going to make an assumption. Is it depression that makes us do stupid shiat like suicide? I'm not afraid of a guy with..wiskers...if that's what he's into. I can handle having beers with people like that. Neither of us are threats to each other, even though I look like the clean, non smoker, no tattoo guy. Nothing to be afraid of. But something makes us tick, and when it comes to suicide (and thankfully I have a bazillion friends that pay attention when I'm not "feeling it") something got farked up. Why did he get to THAT point?

Some of us have shiatty lives and we try to deal with them in whatever ways we can.

I'll drink to that. For one thing if booze disfigures me it does so 1) on the inside where it's less obvious and 2) as a side-effect of drinking, not as what I pay for.

incidentally, to quote Wikipedia, "Avner, whose parents were of Huron and Lakota heritage, stated that altering oneself to resemble one's own totem is an ancient Huron tradition." Actually they meant painting yourself, wearing costumes, and moving and acting like the animal, all to produce a state where you resembled the animal even more "on the INSIDE." I'm pretty sure that even before the Caucasian Invasion the Hurons would have thought this guy was bonkers. I'd also like to see proof of Native ancestry: this guy looked as white as me.

I will now continue adding yet another day to my shiatty life. At some point I've got to get myself a new psychiatrist so I can keep taking the maximum dose of two allegedly complementary antidepressants; after that might come how much straight rum I can drink without feeling sick, though maybe I'll precede that by going to the ex's and walking the dogs.

One thing that helps me bear my shiatty life is comparing myself to people who are even worse off than me, sometimes by their own doing, including people who are so fat their legs can't hold them up, people who are miserable in prison for leaving kiddy porn around, people who drove drunk and got severely and permanently farked up in a wreck, and people who go out of their way to become even uglier than I am naturally. For the sake of my longevity it's great that there are so many of these people around to pity and scorn more than myself.

As another crazy bum back in Baltimore put it, "I live to make my enemies suffer" -- in other words to make my enemies suffer from my existence more than I do myself -- though it's an added bonus to my lazy self that some enemies make themselves suffer badly without any effort or expense to me.

Raug the Dwarf:Just kind of goes to show you that people into this extreme body modification aren't the most mentally stable people to begin with. No amount of needles or holes in your body will ever fill the void in your soul. Usually, people figure that out. Some of them, like this guy, never do.

Sad, sure. But you can't say you didn't see it coming.

THIS.

A couple of tattoos in places a T-shirt and shorts can cover--fine.Tattoos that are on forearms--you'd better be active or former military.Anywhere else--massively foolish.

Altering your looks so that you cannot recognize yourself compared to earlier school photos? HUGE mental problems that should be treated, not celebrated for "edginess".

He wasn't and couldn't be happy as himself. That was the problem. No amount of plastic surgery or body modification would make him happy if he couldn't be fine with who he was to begin with. Then again, if he was happy in the first place, he wouldn't have needed all that surgery to turn himself into something he wasn't. The problem was on the inside, not how he looked on the outside.

It helped a little. Nothing like the coverage I got last year when my conjoined twin and I won the "Americans with Americans Attached to them" Scrabble tournament last August. Of course, we weren't born that way but we were briefly sewn together at our buttocks for the sake of eligibility. It's a loophole but they allowed it.

Raug the Dwarf:He wasn't and couldn't be happy as himself. That was the problem. No amount of plastic surgery or body modification would make him happy if he couldn't be fine with who he was to begin with. Then again, if he was happy in the first place, he wouldn't have needed all that surgery to turn himself into something he wasn't. The problem was on the inside, not how he looked on the outside.

It isn't so hard to understand. Some people can run a 4 minute mile, and some people never will, no matter how much they try. Some people are happy and at peace with who they are, and some people aren't, and never will be. He obviously tried very hard to find some sort of contentment, and in the end he failed.

I am useless to the wild earthSo sings the bowels of every placeI used to map the laughterThough I could never find its faceAnd anywhere that I may goMy judgment roars its restless bellsI never knew and shall never knowA worse place than myself

kapaso:He left his mark on the world and will be remembered long after his passing, something very very few of us will achieve.

i don't really understand the hatred, it's not like he was a child molester or a Republican.

Well to be fair, there are centuries of people that didn't vote for anything, yet still found a way to prod, poke, skewer and otherwise "paint" themselves in the name of something. Your argument is invalid.

This is me at my gramma's indoctrination into the quilting hall of fame in Meskaluka Michigan.

[static.stuff.co.nz image 599x400]

So did you finally get all the attention you so desparately crave?

StrangeQ: Sitar

It helped a little. Nothing like the coverage I got last year when my conjoined twin and I won the "Americans with Americans Attached to them" Scrabble tournament last August. Of course, we weren't born that way but we were briefly sewn together at our buttocks for the sake of eligibility. It's a loophole but they allowed it.

This thread is provoking more giggles from me than shudders that Cat Dude probably evoked before he used up Life Number Nine.

HAMMERTOE:Raug the Dwarf: He wasn't and couldn't be happy as himself. That was the problem. No amount of plastic surgery or body modification would make him happy if he couldn't be fine with who he was to begin with. Then again, if he was happy in the first place, he wouldn't have needed all that surgery to turn himself into something he wasn't. The problem was on the inside, not how he looked on the outside.

And this is different from transsexuals, how?

I don't think it is. I really can't be sure of course, but I suspect that people who insist on taking drastic steps to change gender tend to have been brought up in environments that encourage sexual stereotypes as well. People often cite brain differences that happen in utero, but actually these differences are much more common than "gender dysphoria" and don't really provide an explanation - only part of the story at best. When there really are people who feel just as strongly that they "should" be a cat or a wolf etc then you must admit there is a big psychological factor at play.

I think it is really sad that he is dead. At least he was someone who made the world more interesting. On the other hand if he was really miserable that is terrible. But we don't know that if he committed suicide it had ANYTHING to do with being a "cat man". He could have had some recent life events, just like a lot of other people who kill themselves.

Honestly Subby.. Fark Off. this is someone who is missed and had a big impact on others in their life and i personally know people that are very very sad about this loss. this person had a lot of friends.

Theadeaus:Honestly Subby.. Fark Off. this is someone who is missed and had a big impact on others in their life and i personally know people that are very very sad about this loss. this person had a lot of friends.

Theadeaus:Honestly Subby.. Fark Off. this is someone who is missed and had a big impact on others in their life and i personally know people that are very very sad about this loss. this person had a lot of friends.

Theadeaus:Honestly Subby.. Fark Off. this is someone who is missed and had a big impact on others in their life and i personally know people that are very very sad about this loss. this person had a lot of friends.

kvinesknows:This guy gives morons a bad name. His friends and family for not stepping in and doing something when he first started down the path to crazy are complete and total asshats.

Eh, no idea about his kin in particular, but I know from experience...you CAN'T save everyone.

Knew a gal who committed suicide while medicated, in restraints, on a locked ward, under suicide watch, under 24/7 camera surveillance, under the care of a couple of the best mental health practitioners in the Northwest.